Free Beading Patterns from The Craft Chair

Summer is the perfect time to take a new craft for a spin, and what’s more summer camp appropriate than beading patterns? These four free beading patterns from The Craft Chair (that’s us!) make excellent projects for quiet summer afternoon activities, with minimal effort and materials.

To make these keychain cuties, you’ll need the following: pony beads (any color – feel free to use your favorite sports team colors, school colors, or be inspired by nature), cord, a keychain, and scissors. You might want to use a plastic yarn needle but it’s optional.

If you want to try out the simplest beading pattern first, we recommend the Beaded Owl, which uses four colors (black, orange, light brown, and dark brown – but remember, these are merely suggestions) and has eight rows of beads. It’s incredibly simple and won’t take too long to complete.

Then, if you’re up for more of a challenge, you could try the Beaded Crocodile, which has a snout, arms, legs, and a tail, but only uses two colors. This one might take a little longer than the Beaded Owl, but once you master how to add on the arms and legs it’s easy going.

Finally, when you’re ready for the ultimate challenge, you can try something with wings – either the Beaded Bee (two colors and one set of wings) or the Beaded Dragonfly (three colors and two sets of wings). While the bee has standard colors of black and yellow, the dragonfly can be made of any color or special bead (glitter, wood, clear, etc.) you can find.

If these look like a great summer activity for you and your friends, kids, and summer camp counselors, you can print these out and give them a whirl.